For the third time in the last four years, the Yankees are headed to the ALCS. CC Sabathia carried his teammates to the ALDS finish line against the Orioles, throwing a 121-pitch complete game in the Game Five win.

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CCan’t Be Beat

The Yankees are paying Sabathia an awful lot of money for games like this. The Orioles had pushed them all season long, first for the division title and then in the ALDS, forcing a decisive Game Five in their first postseason series since 1997. Both offenses came into the game struggling in a major way, and it really felt like the first team to score would win. Sabathia made sure that would be his team.

The Yankees and Orioles traded perfect innings until (who else?) Nate McLouth slapped a single to left to open the fourth. Sabathia retired the next three batters without a problem, as he did following a leadoff walk to Matt Wieters in the fifth. Those were the only Orioles to reach base in the first seven innings, but the do or die moment(s) came in the eighth. The Yankees had a 3-0 lead (more on that in a bit), but a Wieters single and a five-pitch walk by Manny Machado brought the tying run to the plate with no outs.

Sabathia’s pitch count was a very manageable 89 at this point, but he started to leave some pitches up and out of the zone, particularly away to right-handers. That’s how he fell behind in the count 3-1 to Mark Reynolds, a hitter who was very capable of tying the game with one swing. CC pumped a fastball in the zone for foul before putting him away with a slider on the outside corner for strike three. That was one out. Lew Ford followed by slapping a single past a diving Derek Jeter at shortstop, scoring Wieters from second and again giving the Orioles first and second with one out.

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Suddenly the game was very uncomfortable. The tying run was on-base, the go-ahead run was at the plate, and the season was on the line. Sabathia went to a 2-2 count on Robert Andino, who chopped a little grounder to the third base side of the mound. CC fielded the ball, look to the unoccupied third base (Eric Chavez had charged the ball), then fired to second for no out. Machado had beat the throw. The bases were loaded with one out and Baltimore’s best hitter — how messed up is it that McLouth was their best hitter? that’s just not cool — was at the plate.

Sabathia was laboring but Joe Girardi stuck with his ace to get the left-left matchup, and his faith was rewarded when CC struck out McLouth on four pitches. The fourth pitch was a wipeout slider down-and-away, Sabathia’s money maker. The Yankees escaped the jam one batter later as J.J. Hardy showed the world his Molina-esque speed — he hit a soft hopper to Jeter that I thought had infield single written all over it, but the Cap’n fired over to first to get Hardy by two full steps. Hard to believe a shortstop could be that slow.

Girardi elected to stick with Sabathia for another inning, and he fired off a perfect ninth inning for the complete game, the first of his postseason career. I don’t think the final line — 9 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K — actually does CC justice since he labored in exactly one inning. Outside of that eighth inning, the Orioles had two baserunners. Two. As has been the norm of late, Sabathia buried hitters with his offspeed stuff, throwing just 62 four-seam fastballs out of 121 pitches. Twenty-one of his 27 sliders went for strikes (!), including ten swings and misses (!!). Only 11 of his 22 changeups went for strikes, but he used it not necessarily to finish hitters off, but to get ahead in the count.

Sabathia was utterly dominant not just in Game Five, but in both of his ALDS starts. He struck out 16 and walked just three, allowing only a dozen hits. CC recorded 53 of the 54 possible outs in his two starts (!!!), setting a new ALDS record with 17.2 innings pitched. The previous record was 16, held by Justin Verlander (2012) and Cliff Lee (2010). The previous Yankees record was 15.2 by David Cone in the 1995 ALDS. Coincidentally enough, Cone threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the game. Sabathia was a monster for the Yankees in the biggest game of the season, continuing a stretch of pure dominance late in the season. What a stud. A true ace.

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Surprise Attack

As I said earlier, both offenses were struggling in a big way coming into the game. Teams will take risks when they’re struggling to score runs, and for the Yankees that meant having Mark Teixeira steal a base. I’m not joking. Even with his bum calf and the best throwing catcher in the league behind the plate, Teixeira swiped second base with no outs after his leadoff single in the fifth. He was the team’s first baser-runner of the day.

The Orioles, of course, helped the Yankees out a bit. They were not holding Teixeira on first even though there were no outs, allowing him to take a nice big lead. He got a great jump and beat the throw without much of a problem. That’s basically what needs to happen for Teixeira to steal a base — the other team kinda has to forget about him. Raul Ibanez came through yet again as the next batter, plating the run with a ground ball single back up the middle. Teixeira chugged in without a throw and the Yankees were up 1-0 just like that.

Out Of The Infield

Since the entire series was close, I think the Yankees did our collective blood pressure a favor by tacking on an insurance run in the sixth inning. Jeter walked with one out then made it all the way home when Ichiro Suzuki ambushed a first pitch fastball from Jason Hammel. He clobbered the pitch off the wall in the right-center field gap, only the fourth ball he hit out of the infield in the series. Despite the bone bruise on his right foot, the Cap’n looked more than fine rounding the bases and had no trouble playing shortstop. After four tight and stressful games, the two-run lead felt like a 200-run lead.

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The Grandyman Can

Through the first four games of the series, Curtis Granderson had a .180 OPS. Yes, OPS. He was flailing at everything and looking so lost at the plate that I wanted him benched. Girardi instead kept his 43-homer man in the lineup, and Curtis responded by going deep off left-hander Troy Patton in the seventh inning to make it a three-run lead. It was a bomb, landing several rows up the second deck in right. After the game, Granderson credited Ibanez for his five-pitch a-bat against Patton an inning prior, which gave him a sense of how he would be pitched. He homered on the same 2-1 slider that Ibanez fouled off. Raul does it all, eh?

Leftovers

McLouth very nearly hit a solo homer in the sixth inning, one inning after the Yankees took the lead. He yanked the ball right down the right field line, but it sailed just foul. The play was close enough that the umpires went to the instant replay system to confirm the call on the field. TBS then went up to that section of seats and asked the usher what he saw, which I found kinda funny. We can laugh now, but it definitely was no laughing matter at the time. I think we were all in “hold on for dear life” mode once they scored that first run.

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Alex Rodriguez, obviously, sat the game out in favor of Chavez against the right-handed Hammel. Chavez went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and I thought it was pretty telling that Girardi opted to stick with Ibanez against the left-handed Patton with men on first and second with two outs in the seventh rather than pinch-hit with A-Rod. Raul struck out to end the inning, and I think the only thing that would have been more damning for Alex was if Jayson Nix or Eduardo Nunez got the call to pinch-hit instead. It’s kinda weird that both clubs had a member of the 600-homer club on the bench (the Orioles sat Jim Thome against Sabathia), something that I can’t imagine has happened before.

Granderson (2-for-3 with the homer) stole a base in that fifth inning as well, and I’m sure Wieters hasn’t had many two-steal innings in his relatively young career. He threw out 39% of base-stealers this season and the Orioles only allowed 63 steals as a team in 2012, by far the fewest among all AL clubs. Granderson didn’t score, but it goes to show how aggressive the Yankees were going to be as two of the first three players to reach base tried to steal (and succeeded).

The Yankees only had five hits overall — Teixeira’s single, Ibanez’s single, Granderson’s single, Ichiro‘s double, and Granderson’s homer — but they also drew three walks (Jeter, Ichiro, Teixeira). Nick Swisher (0-for-3), Robinson Cano (0-for-4), and Russell Martin (0-for-3) contributed nothing offensively. The first dozen Yankees to bat made outs, but eight of the final 18 (.444 OBP) reached base. Let’s hope that late-inning success is an indication that the offense is starting to wake up.

Just to tie a bow on it all, the pitching staff finished the series having allowed just ten runs in 51 total innings (1.76 ERA). They struck out 42 and walked just eight batters. The Orioles scored more than two runs just once, and that was the three they scored in Game Two. Sabathia’s Game Score (82) was the best by a Yankee since Roger Clemens’ gem in Game Two of the 2000 World Series. The pitching staff was on point all series, what a job by those guys.

MLB.com has the box score and video highlights. Believe it or not, this is the first time the Yankees have beaten a non-Twins teams in the ALDS since beating the Athletics back in 2001. Nice to have that monkey off the back. The Bombers are 11-3 all-time in the ALCS, which honestly surprised me. Better than being 3-11 though, so I’ll take it.

Rest? There’s no time for rest. The Yankees and Tigers kick off the ALCS on Saturday night, when Andy Pettitte gets the ball against Doug Fister. Both pitchers will be on regular rest (actually more in Fister’s case). That game is scheduled to start at 8:07pm ET.

I don’t want to brag, but I totally called the Yankees winning by 3-1 in the chat today (page six). What a performance by CC Sabathia, who put his team on his back and carried them to the ALCS on Friday night. Unreal. Bring on the Tigers.

So it all comes down to this. The Yankees and Orioles have been separated by more than one run for a total of six outs this series, playing four incredibly tight games that were more “oh my goodness they keep blowing opportunities” than “holy cow what a great game!” You know what I mean. Outside of the ninth inning of Game One and Raul Ibanez, this series hasn’t been a banner “let’s make some more fans!” exhibition for the game.

Anyway, by now you all know the story. Both teams are struggling so much offensively that they only have two players who can not be considered automatic outs each — Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira for the Yankees, Nate McLouth and Manny Machado for the Orioles. Everyone else has been flailing away, running into bad luck, or some combination of both. CC Sabathia needs to come out and dominate like he did in Game One and the offense … I mean, they just have to wake up. What more can you say? Here are the lineups…

Both the Yankees and Orioles will throw their Game One starter in Game Five tonight, which means a CC Sabathia-Jason Hammel rematch. Here is the pitching preview I wrote for Hammel earlier in the series, which won’t change one bit. He didn’t do anything unexpected in his Game One start other than throw a handful of sliders more than usual. Not enough to think it’s anything meaningful. No point in re-inventing the wheel, so check out the linked preview for tonight.

One thing I do have to add is that Hammel wore a brace on his right knee in Game One and will do so again tonight. He had surgery at midseason and soreness in September, which is why he missed basically the entire second half. The Yankees should test him out with a bunt early on, specifically Ichiro Suzuki. After that scorching hot September run, Ichiro has gone 4-for-20 with a sac bunt in the ALDS, hitting just three (three!) balls out of the infield. He’s not the greatest bunter in the world, but it’s worth a shot in the first inning to see how Hammel is moving.

For the first time in baseball history, all four LDS matchups will go the full five games. Unfortunately that means the Yankees lost Game Four to the Orioles on Thursday night, a 2-1 game that featured an awful lot of offensive failures on both sides.

(Al Bello/Getty)

St. Philip of Hughes

Pitching in his first game action in nearly two weeks, Phil Hughes put up a light version of Hiroki Kuroda‘s Game Three outing but dancing around danger early before settling down to put up a representative start. He walked the leadoff man in three of the first four innings but pitched out of the jam each time — first and second with no outs in the first, second and third with no outs in the second, first and third with two outs in the third. Phil’s only mistake was a solo homer to Babe McLouth leading off the fifth.

All told, Hughes threw 95 pitches in 6.2 innings of one-run ball. He retired nine of the final ten batters he faced after the homer and allowed just four hits overall. He also walked those three leadoff men. The Orioles swing and missed 15 times as part of eight strikeouts, a strong number for Hughes after struggling to miss bats a bit in September. This start was awfully reminiscent of Game Three of the 2010 ALDS, when Phil scuffled in the second half but came out and held the Twins in check. Unfortunately the offense did not support him like they did that night.

Set Up To Fail

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Joe Girardi made the gutsiest call of his managerial career in Game Three on Wednesday, lifting Alex Rodriguez for pinch-hitter Raul Ibanez in the ninth inning of a one-run game. It was the right call and not just because it worked out — A-Rod has been abysmal against right-handed pitchers lately and he simply did not give the team the best chance to win in that spot. Instead of following the same script in Game Four, Girardi left Alex in the game to face righties with the go-ahead run in scoring position on not one, but two occasions.

Now just to be fair, A-Rod did reach base in his first two at-bats. He drew a leadoff walk against Joe Saunders in the second inning, but his teammates failed to advanced him any further. He also singled with one out in the fourth only to be erased on a double play. That came off Saunders as well, a left-hander. The situation changed in the sixth, after Robinson Cano tied the game with an RBI ground out. Mark Teixeira was on second base with two outs and rather than leave Saunders in to face Alex a third time, Buck Showalter lifted him for hard-throwing righty Tommy Hunter. Five pitches later, the inning was over after A-Rod swung through a fastball for strike three.

Fast forward to the eighth, when the Yankees blew their biggest opportunity to take the lead. Ichiro Suzuki and Teixeira singled to open the inning, putting men on first and second with no outs. Cano advanced the runners to second and third with a ground out, which wasn’t exactly ideal but better than nothing I suppose. Robbie’s ALDS disappearing act is something we can discuss at another time. So now the go-ahead run is on third base (and an insurance run is on second) with one out. Showalter lifted the lefty Brian Matusz for the side-winding righty Darren O’Day, who has crushed same-side hitters for years. He struck out A-Rod on four pitches with three swings and misses. Nick Swisher flew out to end the inning.

Ibanez, the Game Three mega-hero, was not used in the game until there were two outs in the bottom of the ninth. The score was tied and no one was on-base. It was homer of bust, basically, and Ibanez grounded out to end the inning before being replaced by Eduardo Nunez defensively the next inning. No one is expecting him to hit pinch-hit homer every game, no one reasonable anyway, but it’s very clear that Ibanez is one of the team’s more productive hitters at the moment. Girardi opted to let A-Rod bat in two situations in which he had so little chance of succeeding — he’s 0-for-12 with nine strikeouts against righties in the series — and his faith was not rewarded. The team’s hottest and most dangerous hitter was given one at-bat with no one on-base. With that many underperforming hitters in the lineup, they were destined to fail.

The Orioles have scored exactly one run after the seventh inning in this series, and that was the game-winning run in the 13th inning in Game Four. J.J. Hardy doubled in Manny Machado to win the game. The bullpen, and really the entire pitching staff in general, was not at fault for the loss however. After Hughes went the first 6.2 innings, a total of seven relievers combined to allow four base-runners and one run in 6.1 runs. Two runs and 12 strikeouts in 13 innings, and that wasn’t good enough for a win. Think about that.

Anyway, Boone Logan was first in line and he retired McLouth with a soft liner to second to end the seventh. David Robertson dazzled in an eight-pitch eighth inning, then Rafael Soriano chipped in scoreless ninth and tenth innings. Joba Chamberlain threw a perfect 11th and started the 12th, but a Matt Wieters’ broken bat hit him in the elbow and forced him from the game. X-rays were negative and he’ll be re-evaluated tomorrow. David Phelps took over and escaped the inning before giving up the run in the 13th. Clay Rapada and Derek Lowe got the final two outs without incident. The pitching staff has allowed nine runs in 42 innings this series. Nine runs in 42 innings. That’s a 1.93 ERA, and it wasn’t good enough to avoid a decisive Game Five.

Leftovers

(AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

We’ve already talked about A-Rod, but let’s count all the other ways the offense failed. Derek Jeter went 2-for-6 and scored the only run, and he has multiple hits in all four games of the series. He also struck out looking on a Luis Ayala fastball with two men on to end the seventh. Ichiro went 1-for-5 with a sacrifice bunt and Teixeira reached base four times in his six plate appearances (single and three walks). The quartet of Cano, Swisher, Curtis Granderson, and Russell Martin went a combined 0-for-20 with one walk (Martin) and four strikeouts (three by Curtis). The Yankees went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position on the night with Jeter, A-Rod, and Cano taking 0-for-2s in those spots.

Jayson Nix played shortstop while Jeter nursed the bone bruise on his left foot, making him the first player to start at the position other than the Cap’n since (who else?) Tony Fernandez in Game Five of the 1995 ALDS. Nix was actually the team’s most productive offensive player in the game, going 2-for-3 with a double. He was replaced by Ibanez in the ninth.

Fieldin Culbreth’s strike zone was a disaster, which I guess isn’t a surprise. It was bad for both teams but I don’t want to blame it for anything, I’m just making an observation. It’s made even more noticeable and annoying by the little permanent strike zone sidebar on the TBS broadcast.

Either the Yankees or the Orioles are going home tomorrow when they play Game Five. The winner will advance to play the Tigers in the ALCS, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. CC Sabathia and Jason Hammel will square off in a Game One rematch at 5:07pm ET. Yes, a 5:07pm ET start on a Friday. That’s actually a thing that will happen.

What happens when an entire lineup is slumping at once? You score one run on a ground out in 13 innings. CC Sabathia gets the ball with the season on the line tomorrow, maybe the rest of the Yankees will show up as well.